other hand, in the account of Dr. George Glover against Edmund Dil, a seaman, there were entries for supplies of food and for lodging as well as for medicine and attendance, the amount of this bill being seven pounds sterling.[1] In some cases, the patient, in consideration of the fact that his physician agreed to attend him and his family during his life, granted him a tract of land covering as much as one hundred acres in area.[2]
There are indications in different parts of the seventeenth century that the charges of practitioners were considered to be grossly immoderate. So excessive were their rates previous to 1630, that masters were tempted to suffer a servant to perish for want of proper advice and medicines rather then submit to their exactions. It was now provided that in every case in which a patient had just cause to think that the account of his medical attendant was wholly unreasonable, he should have that attendant summoned to the court of the county in which the patient resided. Here the physician was required to state upon oath the quantity and value of the medicines which he had administered, and the judges then decided what satisfaction was to be allowed him. These provisions remained in force during a long course of years.[3] The accounts of physicians were, in 1661, made pleadable against the estates of deceased persons, and these accounts, in case the patient recovered, were barred unless sued upon before the end of six months.[4] In 1661, the rule was adopted that when a practitioner was summoned to court to answer for immoderate charges, he should be
- ↑ Records of Elizabeth City County, vol. 1684-1699, p. 143, Va. State Library. See Records of York County, vol. 1687-1691, p. 8; see also Ibid., p. 367, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Records of York County, vol. 1657-1662, p. 272, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Hening’s Statutes, vol. I, pp. 316, 450.
- ↑ Ibid., vol. II, p. 26.
